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Open Philosophy LibraryThe RepublicPlato

The Republic

By Plato

Plato's Republic asks what justice is and why the just life is better than injustice. Across ten Books, Socrates constructs an ideal city, relates its classes to the parts of the soul, defends philosopher-rulers, develops the images of the Sun, Divided Line and Cave, traces political decline from aristocracy to tyranny, challenges imitative poetry and concludes with the Myth of Er.

Translator or editor
Benjamin Jowett
Publication
c. 375 BCE; Benjamin Jowett translation, third edition 1888
Genre
Socratic dialogue; political philosophy; ethics
Era
Ancient Philosophy

About this work

Written around 375 BCE, The Republic is Plato's foundational dialogue on justice, political order, education and the good life. Socrates tests common and sophistic definitions of justice before answering Glaucon's challenge to show that justice benefits the soul independently of reputation. A city in speech makes its structure visible. The ideal city contains producers, auxiliaries and philosopher-rulers. Its order is mirrored in the rational, spirited and appetitive parts of the individual soul. The central Books present equal guardian education for women, philosophical rule, the Form of the Good, the Divided Line and the Allegory of the Cave. Education turns the soul towards intelligible reality and prepares philosophers to return to public responsibility. Later Books trace the decline of constitutions and characters into tyranny, defend the happiness of the just person, criticise imitative poetry and conclude with the Myth of Er's vision of judgement and moral choice.

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